


After the Darkness Comes Truth

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Developing Relationship, Fear, Fire, Friends to Lovers, Multi, OT3, Pre-OT3, Rescue, Rescue Missions, Trapped, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 08:17:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3167924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parker is trapped in a burning building, with Hardison and Eliot unable to do anything more than provide intel to the fire fighting crews.  While they wait and pray for a miracle, Hardison decides to confront Eliot about his real feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Darkness Comes Truth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rories](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rories/gifts).



> I can't decide if this works with the prompts you gave rories, or turns them inside out. Either way, I hope you enjoy - and thank you for playing with us!

When you’ve lived the way Eliot Spencer had chosen to live, you tend to become familiar with the idea of hell on earth. Eliot had three separate hells; moments in his life when he knew things were as bad as they could possibly get. He never talked about them – such things were private, after all – but he remembered and respected each of them.

Listening to Parker singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” over and over in his head in a voice weakened by pain and God only knew how much smoke in her lungs was a hell more deeply horrifying than anything he had ever imagined enduring. Hardison was even closer to breaking than he was – Eliot stayed close while the hacker worked with the fire crew on tracking as many survivors as they could, but so far the only strain he was showing was a faint trembling in his voice and hands.

_”Hardison?”_

Eliot started to answer for him, but Hardison reached out and gripped his forearm. “Yeah baby – I’m here,” he said. Sliding Eliot into his spot, he moved off for what privacy he could find in the little time and space they had left.

“Your buddy’s made of steel,” the fire chief said, shaking his head in disbelief. “You guys can really hear her?”

He was literally itching to remove his own ear bud – anything so he wouldn’t have to listen to the two people he loved most in the world share what might be their last words to each other. He didn’t dare though; Eliot knew the comms were their best source of intel to be able to get a team safely into Parker’s location, and as such he wouldn’t risk something getting lost because either he or Hardison were distracted at the wrong moment.

“Look,” the man said, reaching across the table to touch Eliot’s wrist. “You two have given us the best chance your girl’s got. We’re gonna do everything we can to get her out.”

Eliot managed to nod. “Make sure your teams know she has at least two broken ribs. Her voice…it’s making a very distinctive…” He couldn’t finish the sentence – relying on a gesture instead – but the man understood.

_”Eliot?”_

Ducking his head, Eliot stepped back from the table. “Right here Parker – what’s up?”

_”Do you really think two of my ribs are broken?”_

Eliot glanced up and saw Hardison watching him. Wishing with all his heart that he could lie to both of them, the hitter exhaled softly. “Yes Parker, I do.”

_”You were going to say you knew it because my voice is making a very distinctive sound, weren’t you?”_

Hardison’s eyes flushed red, and silent tears began tracing silvery lines down his cheeks. Reaching out, Eliot pulled the hacker into a tight, one-armed hug. “Right in one, Parker. That’s why Nate left you in charge.”

_”Nate wouldn’t have gotten himself caught in a burning…”_

Eliot’s heart turned over in his chest as silence filled the space that bound the three of them together. “Parker?”

The line was dead. Hardison shuddered, but managed to straighten up. “Fire’s taken out the building wi-fi. I can reroute the signal. It’ll just…” He pulled away from Eliot then, heading back towards where he had been helping the firemen.

Eliot let him go, struggling against the sudden aching emptiness spreading throughout his body. He  
couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this helpless and alone; normally he could navigate the delicate balancing act between being there for Parker and Hardison and respecting the boundary of their more intimate relationship, but today it was tearing him apart.

_”You keep them safe.”_

_”With my dying breath.”_

Memory of the promise he’d made to Sophie – knight swearing to his queen – was suddenly uppermost in his thoughts, along with the paralyzing fear that he was going to be utterly and completely foresworn this time. “Take me instead,” he whispered, watching the building continue to burn. He hadn’t prayed in longer than he could remember, but right now it was the only thing he had left to keep himself from falling to pieces.

Activity continued on the front lines at a frenetic pace, with the firefighters bringing out more and more survivors from deep inside the structure. Every few seconds Eliot would glance at Hardison, but nothing from any of the people around the table gave him even a whisper of hope that one of the people was Parker.”

 _”…hear something.”_ Just as he was ready to give up all hope, Eliot jolted as another channel suddenly came back to life over his ear bud. Looking over at the table again, he saw Hardison looking back at him with a hopeful expression on his face.

“We’ve got you, Parker. It looks like there’s a team moving into your sector,” the hacker said, his rising excitement barely contained. “Baby, you gotta make as much noise as you can.”

Knowing what was coming next, Eliot nevertheless found himself smiling as the strains of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” filled his ears again. Moving in next to Hardison, he held his breath waiting for some indication that a rescue team had broken through, that against all odds they were going to get Parker back.

After a seeming eternity, the fire chief’s radio crackled to life. _”Command, we have another survivor. Blond female, late twenties to early thirties, suffering from possible head trauma.”_

Startled, the chief looked at them but Eliot waved away the man’s concern. _Guy doesn’t know from crazy if he thinks singing a nursery rhyme in the middle of a deathtrap qualifies._ Nodding, the man said, “Acknowledged. Be advised this is the potential broken ribs we alerted the teams to. Extract with all reasonable caution.”

It was the best they could hope for with the building still on fire. Speed would take precedence over everything else, but if the firefighters knew what to expect in the way of Parker’s injuries they could adjust their tactics as much as possible to accommodate her.

“I need to talk to you for a second.” Hardison’s hand gripped Eliot’s shoulder. Still riding an adrenaline fueled wave of relief, Eliot let the hacker lead him to one side – out of immediate earshot of the people still milling around the site. When he saw Hardison remove his earbud and pocket it however, he sobered immediately. “Yours too,” he said, nodding at Eliot. “Just for a moment – I don’t want to distract Parker with this.”

Worried now, Eliot did as he was told. A heartbeat later he was in Hardison’s arms, and the hacker was kissing him as thoroughly as he’d ever been kissed. Off balance and not at all sure what was going on, Eliot still managed to relax into the younger man’s embrace – kissing him back.

“I heard what you said,” Hardison told him when they finally separated. “On the comms. Man, you still don’t get it, do you?”

Pulse racing, Eliot shook his head. “Apparently not.”

“This isn’t an either-or situation where you throw yourself on the grenade, man. Not even as a hypothetical, you get me? Not ever.”

The hitter felt his cheeks grow hot with embarrassment. “Hardison, I…”

The hacker kissed him again, effectively cutting off whatever type of excuse Eliot was planning on making for what he’d said and what he’d meant. “Don’t care. We almost lost Parker today, Eliot, and if that happened you never would have believed what we’ve been trying to show you for months now.”

A tiny spark of hope burst to life in Eliot’s chest. “I didn’t want to muck things up,” he said, still unwilling to let himself entirely believe what Hardison seemed to be offering.

“The only way you’re going to do that is if you keep pretending you’re not as much a part of this relationship as me or Parker,” Hardison said. “She’s going to need both of us while she recovers, and I need to know that you’re in this with me.”

“Of course,” Eliot said without hesitation. “Whatever you guys need – you know I’m there for you.”

Hardison crossed his arms over his chest, clearly expecting something more in the way of a response. When he didn’t get it, the hacker sighed. “This also means you tell us what _you_ need, Eliot. We get to be there for you too. You stop going home alone, you stop holding yourself apart – you stop denying that you feel the same way we do.”

“I never denied my feelings,” Eliot protested. “I just didn’t think...”

Grinning now, Hardison held up a hand. “I’m gonna stop you right there, because you just said it all.”


End file.
